Gal Salomon, the CEO of Discretix gives us a timely reminder that the wonderful world of the smart mobile, whilst in many ways a very good thing, also brings with it serious security implications… ones we cannot afford to ignore for long.

Social networking sites have certainly thrust the issue of privacy firmly into the spotlight recently.  The amount of personal information at risk is simply mind blowing. Yes in many cases the information is pretty useless, but consumers are being encouraged to share more and more personal data, much of it very valuable and some of it very sensitive.

Yet, as recent events with AT&T have shown, connected devices have raised the bar even further. Connected mobile phones are designed to be a part of our everyday lives — a kind of modern day Swiss Army knife.  Unlike the personal computer, mobile devices are personalised, linked to our favourite networking sites; they have their own mass storage capacity, GPS, call logs, address books, photographs and the list just goes on and on.

Imagine if the device and its contents were exposed or could be traced? Almost every aspect of your personal life will be monitored; your movements, your phone calls, your online purchases, your emails etc. In the age of the PC the threats of malware and hacking were severe but less personal. In the age of the connected device, the threat has been raised to an entirely new level.

To be sure, the data breach in the case of AT&T did not occur because of a bug, or by some malicious code installed onto the device. The breach occurred because of a poorly designed web interface. As is always the case in security and privacy, your protection is only as strong as the weakest link.

With so many connected devices and services linked together, all the players making up the service chain need to make security and privacy a priority.

Gal Salomon, the CEO of Discretix, has held many senior positions in the development and management of communication controllers and microprocessors, having gained extensive experience in the commercialisation of technology for the wireless communication industry. Before setting up Discretix, he served as Product Manager at Intel Corp’s Cellular Communication Division. Gal Salomon also served as Product Manager at DSP Communications. He holds a B. Sc. in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from the Recanati Graduate School of Business.

Written by GuestWriter